Hundreds of miles from the border, one Iowa City group fights to keep local immigrant families together

Two fathers attempting to cross the border into the U.S. share their motivation and their fears about making the journey as they risk being separated from their children due to the 'zero tolerance' immigration policy.
USA TODAY

About 2,000 migrant children have been separated from their parents at the southern border under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy. USA Today U.S. border and immigration officers have separated about 2,000 migrant children from their parents at the Southern Border under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy.(Photo11: USA Today)

Espina's nonprofit, based in Iowa City, finds funding to post bail for immigrants while their immigration hearings are pending, many of whom are parents. The handful of volunteers who run the nonprofit have so far been able to post 21 bonds in the year and a half since they began.

This US Customs and Border Protection photo dated June 17, 2018, and obtained June 18, 2018, shows intake of illegal border crossers by US Border Patrol agents at the Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas on May 23, 2018.(Photo11: Handout, AFP/Getty Images)

"As a practical matter, what you see is people who are entitled to be free, people who are entitled to be home with their families while their cases are ongoing, are held in detention because they cannot come up with the money," said Julia Zalenski, a lawyer based in Johnson County who volunteers for the bond project.

Not everyone eligible for bond needs help raising the money — in the Mount pleasant raid, for example, at least 11 immigrants paid out of their own pockets to get out of detention. But the bond project is there for those who do need the helping hand, said Nicole Novak, a volunteer with the nonprofit and a community health researcher.

Hundreds gather for a vigil in support of the men who were detained in May's ICE raid in Mount Pleasant. EICBP helped post bail for a dozen of the 32 men who were detained, allowing them the opportunity to be with their family and mount a legal defense for their hearing.(Photo11: Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)

She describes the bond payments as the simplest problem the community can help out with, though the word "simple" seems to undercut the work that goes into raising the necessary funds.

Novak says there are several studies that speak to the health impact of immigration enforcement on undocumented immigrants and their families, including at least two she has authored. She said the fear of being deported and separated from family leads people to rethink their lives and reshape their finances in a way that makes life less healthy.

She said she got involved with the bond project to try to help mitigate the health impact of immigration enforcement.

"It's not just about the legal case of the person being detained and their well-being getting them out of detention, but the well-being of their family members who have to step in and rearrange their lives while that person is out of the picture, not able to contribute to family finances and be there as part of the family," Novak said.

Zalenski adds that the time allows immigrants the time to gather evidence, find legal representation and mount a legal defense.

"Cumulatively, the result is detention really denies people any kind of access to a fair hearing in immigration court," she said. "That's fundamentally what it comes down to."

The organization formed shortly after Trump took office, around the time arrests and deportations in Iowa and the nation increased according to federal data, though not to peak levels during President Barack Obama's years in office.

In the ICE region that includes Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, there were 4,175 arrests made in the fiscal year ending in September. In the prior year, there were 2,500 arrests.

The new policy of separating families at the border, however, was a new low for immigrant advocates.

Espina greeted the news of Wednesday's executive order with less optimism.

"Now families are just going to be jailed together, which is not that much better, but it's something," she said.

Espina attributes the policy reversal to the uproar from communities across the nation, though Zalenski points out that family separation is still happening in those communities.

"The idea of family unity is a central concept of what we are doing here,"Zalenski said, adding that keeping families together at the border is critical, "but ICE is separating families everywhere, every day."

Reach Aimee Breaux at abreaux@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5414, and follow her on Twitter @aimee_breaux.